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In the exclusive Bantry Bay area, Ellerman House has 11 rooms, two suites, two villas, and one-and-a-half-acre hillside gardens, all verdant lawns, waving palm trees, and aromatic Cape fynbos beds. The staff members treat everyone like a houseguest by pressing clothes, running bubble-baths, delivering antique silver pots of just-picked mint for tea, and advising on the perfect wine.
The service within its airy, light-filled spa, its amply stocked cellar, and its sunny restaurant is personalized; chefs happily whip up individual favorites, like rich Cape Malay curries and fresh lobster salads, as well as treats that are set out daily in a help-yourself pantry. For families, two more-contemporary villas enable children to splash about in their own pool without disturbing those indulging in a formal English tea on the shaded verandas or lazing on a pool lounger while watching seagulls wheel above the Atlantic.
This feels like a gracious grande dame of a hotel—a clubby space that encourages you to slow down and be spoiled. Ebony Lodge, overlooking the Sand River in a private concession in the leopard-rich Sabi Sands Game Reserve, was the one that started it all, back in The new Ebony Lodge—with the indoor-outdoor stepped central area that descends toward the river, and the glass and canvas that has replaced walls in the 12 richly textured suites—is more flowing, more immersed in nature.
